Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Prophets & Divine Messengers

Lalla Zaynab

لالة زينب القاسمية

Algeria

c. 1850 – 1904 (54 years old)

Algerian female religious leader and Sufi shaykha who succeeded her father Cheikh Mohamed Belqacem as head of the prestigious Rahmaniyya Zawiya of El Hamel in 1897, successfully defying French colonial attempts to seize its vast endowments.

El Hamel, Algeria

52 Full Record →

3

Resistance & Human Rights

Niels Finsen

Niels Ryberg Finsen

Denmark

1860-12-15 – 1904-09-24 (43 years old)

Faroese-Danish physician who founded modern phototherapy, awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for curing lupus vulgaris using concentrated light rays.

Copenhagen, Denmark

3 Full Record →

42

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Chief Joseph

Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it (Thunder Rolling in the Mountains)

United States

3 March 1840 – 21 September 1904 (64 years old)

Leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce who led his people on an epic 1,170-mile fighting retreat across the Rocky Mountains toward Canada in 1877 and became a celebrated orator for indigenous human dignity.

Colville Indian Reservation, Washington, United States

42 Full Record →

Military

3

William Hall

Canada

28 April 1827 – 25 August 1904 (77 years old)

Nova Scotia naval hero who manned a 24-pounder gun under devastating fire at the Relief of Lucknow in 1857, becoming the first Black person and first Canadian sailor awarded the VC.

Hantsport, Canada

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

38

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Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Антон Павлович Чехов

Russia

29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904 (44 years old)

Practicing physician universally recognized as the foundational father of the modern short story and modern theater whose understated, poignant dramas—The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard—revolutionized world drama with the Moscow Art Theatre.

Badenweiler (Baden), Germany

38 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

6

Sami Frashëri

Albania

1850-06-01 – 1904-06-18 (54 years old)

Colossal polymath and encyclopedist who authored the manifesto Shqipëria ç'ka qenë, ç'është e çdo të bëhetë, designed the Istanbul Albanian alphabet, and compiled the six-volume Ottoman encyclopedia Kamus al-A'lam.

Istanbul, Turkey

6 Full Record →

History

Nikiforos Lytras

Greece

1832 – 1904 (72 years old)

Major Greek painter of the Munich School and professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, patriarch of modern Greek painting.

Athens, Greece

1 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

33

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata

જમશેદજી નસરવાનજી ટાટા

India

1839 – 1904 (65 years old)

Père de l'industrie indienne et désigné en 2021 comme le plus grand philanthrope du siècle par Hurun Philanthropy (plus de 102 milliards de dollars de dons cumulés).

Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom

33 Full Record →

Music

Antonín Dvořák

Antonín Leopold Dvořák

Kingdom of Bohemia

1841-09-08 – 1904-05-01 (62 years old)

Worldwide master composer whose 'New World Symphony' (No. 9), 'Slavonic Dances', Cello Concerto, and opera 'Rusalka' fused Bohemian folk melody with classical symphonic grandeur to dazzle world audiences.

Prague, Czech Republic

1 Full Record →

47

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Antonín Leopold Dvořák

Antonín Dvořák

Czech Republic

8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904 (62 years old)

Supreme Czech national composer whose Slavonic Dances, sublime Cello Concerto in B minor, and iconic Symphony No. 9 'From the New World' united Bohemian folk idioms with universal symphonic grandeur.

Prague (Bohemia), Czech Republic

47 Full Record →

Politics

King Norodom

ព្រះបាទនរោត្តម

Cambodia

1834-02-01 – 1904-04-24 (70 years old)

King of Cambodia whose 44-year reign established the French protectorate in 1863 to save Cambodia from Siamese and Vietnamese dismemberment, moving the royal capital permanently to Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

10

Ismail Sfar

إسماعيل صفار

Tunisia

1848 AD – 1904 (56 years old)

Celebrated poet and enlightened civil servant whose patriotic verse inspired early nationalist consciousness and whose sons Béchir and Tahar Sfar founded modern Tunisian political movements.

Tunis, Tunisia

10 Full Record →

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Prophets & Divine Messengers

Jean-Léon Gérôme

France

1824 – 1904 (79 years old)

Titan of French Academic painting and sculpture whose hyper-realistic historical, gladiator, and Orientalist canvases—such as 'Pollice Verso'—shaped modern historical imagery.

Paris, France

35 Full Record →

Mogho Naba Wobgo

Boukary Koutou

🌐 Burkina Faso

c. 1850 – 1904-01-01 (54 years old)

Thirty-first Mogho Naba of the Mossi Kingdom known as 'The Elephant' who resolutely refused French colonial protectorates in 1896 and led armed military resistance from exile until his death.

Upper East Region, Ghana

1 Full Record →

3,461

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Camille Pissarro

Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro

United states

1830 – 1903 (73 years old)

Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter, revered as the patriarchal mentor of Cézanne, Gauguin, and Seurat.

Paris, France

3,461 Full Record →

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Rentaro Taki

滝廉太郎

Japan

1879 – 1903 (23 years old)

Pioneering Meiji-era Japanese composer and pianist who wrote the beloved song Kojo no Tsuki (The Moon over the Ruined Castle), fusing Western classical harmony with Japanese pentatonic lyricism.

Oita, Japan

38 Full Record →